PHIL 510: Seminar in the History of Philosophy
Fall 2009 • David Shier and Douglas Lind
David Shier's Fall 2009 Office Hours
Mon, Tue, Wed & Thu 9:00-10:25
and by appointment
Syllabus
Assignments
| DATES | ASSIGNED |
| Aug. 28 | Read the introductions to the Menand volume and the Dickstein volume. |
| Sep. 4 | Peirce: "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," "The Fixation of Belief," "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" |
| Sep. 11 | James: "What Pragmatism Means," "The Will to Believe," "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth;" Russell:"William James' Conception of Truth" (Optional – James: "Two English Critics") |
| Sep. 18 | Dewey: "I Believe," "The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy," "Theories of Knowledge," and (optional) "The Ethics of Democracy" |
| Sep. 25 | Rorty: "Philosophy as a Kind of Writing" (only section 1), "Postmodern Bourgeois Liberalism," "Pragmatism as Romantic Polytheism" (in Dickstein), and Haack's "Vulgar Rortyism" (see below) |
| Oct. 2 | Putnam: "Fact and Value" (Menand), "Pragmatism and Realism" (Dickstein); Morgenbesser:"Response to Hilary Putnam's 'Pragmatism and Realism'" (Dickstein); Bernstein: "Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Healing of Wounds" (Menand) |
| Oct. 9 | Holmes: "The Path of the Law;" Posner: "Pragmatic Adjudication" |
| Oct. 16 | Grey: "Freestanding Legal Pragmatism;" Haack: "On Legal Pragmatism: Where Does 'The Path of the Law' Lead Us?" (see below) |
| Oct. 23 | Luban: "What's Pragmatic About Legal Pragmatism?"; Dewey: "My Philosophy of Law" (see below). (Lind reading for this week no longer assigned.) |
| Oct. 30 | Dewey: "Experience, Nature and Art" (Menand), and Ch. 1 & 3 of Art as Experience (see below). |
| Nov. 6 | Shusterman: "Art in Action, Art Infraction" (see below); Ortega y Gasset: "The Dehumanization of Art"; Goodman, Ch. 4 of Ways of Worldmaking (OPTIONAL see below) |
| Nov. 13 | Carney: "When Mind is a Verb"; Poirer: "Why Do Pragmatists Want to be Like Poets?" and Menand: "Pragmatists and Poets: A Response to Poirer" |
| Nov. 20 | Rosenthal and Buchholz: "How Pragmatism IS an Environmental Ethic" (LIght & Katz); Hickman: "Nature as Culture: John Dewey's Pragmatic Naturalism" (LIght & Katz) |
| Nov. 27 | Thanksgiving Break |
| Dec. 4 | Schiappa: "Towards a Pragmatic Approach to Definition: 'Wetlands' and the Politics of Meaning"; Castle: "A Pluralistic, Pragmatic and Evolutionary Approach to Natural Resource Management" |
| Dec.11 | Weston: "Beyond Intrinsic Value: Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics"; Katz: "Searching for Intrinsic Value: Pragmatism and Despair in Environmental Ethics"; Weston & Katz: "Unfair to Swamps; Unfair to Foundations" |
| EXAM WEEK | Term papers due 12/16 by 12:00 p.m. (download instructions) |
Additional readings
- Bertrand Russell, "William James' Conception of Truth"
- William James, "Two English Critics"
- Susan Haack, "Vulgar Rortyism"
- Susan Haack, "On Legal Pragmatism: Where Does 'The Path of the Law' Lead Us?"
- John Dewey, "My Philosophy of Law"
- John Dewey, Ch. 1 & 3 of Art as Experience
- Richard Shusterman, "Art In Action, Art Infraction"
- Jose Ortega y Gasset, "The Dehumanization of Art" (for 11/6)
- Nelson Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking (Ch. 4) (OPTIONAL for 11/6)
Other Materials
- Student presentation schedule
Heading using the h3tag
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